China orders Meituan billionaire to lie low after poem post sparks fury

China’s government summoned Meituan’s Wang Xing to a meeting recently and warned him to keep a low profile, after the founder of China’s third-largest tech corporation last month posted a controversial poem that convulsed markets and sparked a social media furor.
 
Beijing officials called Wang in after the food delivery mogul posted a millennium-old poem regarded by many as implicit criticism of the government, according to people with knowledge of the matter. They warned him to refrain from courting the spotlight, at least temporarily, the people said, asking not to be identified as they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter.

 
The Tang Dynasty poem — describing the burning of books under China’s first emperor — was widely seen as anti-establishment and triggered a $26 billion selloff in Meituan’s shares over two days.
 

While the CEO later issued a clarification saying his post had been targeted at the short-sightedness of his own industry, some investors drew parallels to the criticisms issued by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founder Jack Ma against regulators last year, which triggered an unprecedented crackdown on China’s internet sector.